USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Prairie farmer's directory of Marshall, Putnam and Stark Counties, Ill, 1917 > Part 4
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Prairie farmer's directory of Marshall, Putnam and Stark Counties, Ill, 1917 > Part 4
USA > Illinois > Stark County > Prairie farmer's directory of Marshall, Putnam and Stark Counties, Ill, 1917 > Part 4
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This tongue adjustment will vary on the different makes of planters. On some it is at the rear end of the tongue, but it will be found on all the popular makes. As a rule the front frame of the planter should be run level, and it can be so run with a properly drawn check wire. But dif- ferent tensions on the wire drawn by different drivers may neces itate throwing the front frame slightly out of a horizontal position. If the planter drops too close to the button. make such tongue adjustment as will
Fig. 1. Tongue Adjustment to Secure Accurate Checking
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MARSHALL, PUTNAM, STARK COUNTIES
A
B.
A Spread Check Fork May Cause Stringing
drop the furrow openers back a little toward the wheels. To some extent tightening the check wire will accom- plish the same result in the check. Forcing the furrow openers a little ahead by means of the tongue adjust- ment will cause the hill to be dropped a little close to the button, or having the check wire a little acre slack will have the same result in the check. In testing for accuracy of check by digging up hills, select hills pretty close behind the planter. Adjusting the neckyoke straps will also affect the check. The adjustment shown in Fig. 1 is also a means of maintaining a good check when different heights of teams are used and when the dif- ference cannot be compensated for by adjusting the neckyoke straps.
Uniform tension in the check wire must be maintained if accurate check- ing is to result. Some drivers even go so far as to make allowance for the expansion and contraction of the check wire due to varying tempera-
ture from day to day, but this is get- ting too particular to be practical. It is practical, however, where plant- ing is being done up and down a slope, to pull the wire tighter when setting the high stake.
Uniform Depth of Planting
In planting over a rough field, a more uniform depth can often be se- cured by floating the furrow openers, but when this is done the operator should keep the openers under foot control so that the shoes may be forced to their depth in dry spots and kept from planting too deep in moist, soft spots. There are a number of shoe gauges now on the market which attach to shoes to insure uniform depth when floating is desirable. Such attachments should prove valuable if properly used where the conditions demand. Stringing of the hill may be caused by (a) dirt in the boot, and (b) by a spread check arm. Trouble from the first cause will probably be
29
PRAIRIE FARMER'S RELIABLE DIRECTORY
due to the team having set back on the planter while the shoes were still in the ground. Clean out the boot bottom thoroughly and the rest of the remedy is obvious. Trouble (b) is less easily detected. If the check arm is spread as is shown at B in Fig. 2. the wire button will let go of the check arm before the valves have been forced wide open, to the result that the kernels will be strung out in the row rather than being dropped well together. By means of a ham- mer, drive the arm halves together to their original position, but in so doing care must be taken not to get the halves so closely together that bind- ing of the wire will result. The check arm halves can be left straight as shown at A in Fig. 2. Some opera- tors find that stringing is due to a badly worn shoe. If this is deter- mined to be the cause. new parts must usually be supplied.
Clutch Troubles
Clutches on the various planters differ so widely in design that no spe- cific rules can be given that would apply to all makes. Failure of the clutch to grip or release can often be overcome by thoroughly cleaning the parts, and if the striking forces are worn round, new parts may have to be secured. On most planters this means but slight expense and a little patience.
Timing the Plate Rims
Breakage may necessitate removal of the rim which drives the plate. This rim is timed with the pinion on the shaft which drives the plates from the clutch, and when the rim is re- placed on the machine the "time" must be re-established. If the plate rim is out of time with the pinion, inaccu- racy will result because the plate it- self will not stop at the proper time.
On some machines the cog teeth of the rim and pinion are so marked or constructed that it is very easy to ascertain the proper relation between the two castings. Before removing the rim the operator should carefully seek any such guides so that he may know just how to replace the parts. If no guide is found on the arm and on the shaft pinion, make a mark on each by means of a cold chisel, and then in replacing parts bring these
two marks into the same relation to each other as at first. It sometimes happens that after replacing a rim or adding a new one, it breaks as soon as it revolves. This is due to non- timing.
The question is often asked: "Is the disc furrow opener preferable to the ordinary shoe runner?" The sin- gle disc opener has better penetration than the shoe and will cut through trash to better advantage, but it throws the soil to one side and cover- ing is made more difficult. The dou- ble disc has less penetrating ability than the single disc, but covering can be more easily accomplished after it.
In hard, trashy ground, then, the disc opener should prove preferable to the shoe opener. but in a well pre- pared seed bed, well free from surface trash, the shoe is strongly advocated because of its simplicity. The planter with disc openers cannot be consid- ered a heavy draft implement, but the discs carry bearings which must work in soil and one may always expect trouble with such a combination.
"Make This Store Your Store"
BERNARD TIMBER & CO. LACON, ILLINOIS
Footwear and Shoe Repair- ing, Tailoring, Cleaning and Pressing.
WE HANDLE many well-known brands of shoes such as Dr. Reed's Cushion Shoe for men and women; Buster Brown Shoes for children-and several others.
How About That New Suit?
Do you know that we're prepared to serve you better than any tailor in town as far as Quality of Mater- ial, Style and Fit is concerned?
Just Give Us a Trial ! Satisfaction Guaranteed or No Sale !
30
MARSHALL, PUTNAM, STARK COUNTIES
HOW TO MEND THE HAY ROPE
By C. O. Reed, University of Illinois in Prairie Farmer.
To repair a broken or badly weak- ened strand, complete the break as shown in Fig. 1 and unlay each end of the strand back about 2 feet as
shown at A and B in Fig. 2. Take a strand about five feet long from a piece of rope exactly the same size as the hay rope, and lay it into the
A
B
--
-
Fig. 1. A Broken Strand to Be Repaired.
B
C
Fig. 2. Ready to Lay In the New Piece
C
B
A
Fig. 3. Starting to Lay In the New Strand in Repairing a Broken Strand
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PRAIRIE FARMER'S RELIABLE DIRECTORY
C
A
Fig. 4. In Laying In the New Strand the Original Twist and Tension Must Be Maintained
B
A
C
Fig. 5. The New Strand Has Been Laid In Ready to be Secured at the Ends.
place of the broken strand as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, great caution being taken to give the new strand its orig- inal twist and to draw it sufficiently tight, so that the old and new strands will have the same tension when the load is applied. We now have the ends, as shown in Fig. 5. With each pair of ends, tie a simple knot, as shown in the upper rope in Fig. 6, caution being taken to avoid tying the knot shown in the lower half of the same picture. Pull the knots well down into the lay of the rope. Now weave each end in, always working from right to left in weaving, or at right angles to the twist or spiral. Work each end under the two
strands, laying next to the knot as with ends B and D in Fig. 7. Work the ends in a second time and then cut them off, leaving about a quaster of an inch extending out of the rope, as shown in Fig. 8. This completes the repairing of a broken strand. The rope will be stronger than its pre- vious dangerous condition, and if the repair is properly made, it will be hard to detect and will last as long as the rope is serviceable.
If the hay rope is broken or breaks during the hay season, mend it with a long splice which can be quickly made with a little practice. The short splice should not be used in hay ropes. Proceed with the long splice as follows:
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MARSHALL, PUTNAM, STARK COUNTIES
About 21/2 feet from the ends of the rope at the break, tie a piece of twine securely around the rope. Un- lay all three strands in each end back to the twines. Now bring the ends of the rope together securely so that each strand from one end lies alone between two strands of the other end, as shown in Fig. 9. Each strand from each end must now be paired with a corresponding strand from the other end, the strands of each pair standing in the same relation to each other as the strands in each other pair: for instance, in Fig. 9 strands 3 and 5 are paired and the other re- maining strands must now be paired in exactly the same way. The proc- ess now consists of unlaying one
strand of each two pairs and laying into its place its mate from the other rope. In other words, strand 5 in Fig. 9 is unlaid and strand 3. is laid into its place toward the reader's right. Then strand 2 from the left rope is unlaid and its mate, strand 6, is laid into its place toward our left. The third pair of strands remains in the center. Cut off each strand so that about five inches remains and we will then have the partially com- pleted splice, as shown in Fig. 10. With each pair of ends, tie a simple knot exactly as shown in the upper half of Fig. 6 and weave the ends in just as we did when repairing . a broken strand above. In making the splice great care must be taken to keep the original twist in all strands
A
10
2
Fig. 6. Tying Ends in Repairing a Broken Strand and in the Long Splice. The Upper Simple Knot Is Correct. The Lower Knot Is Wrong
C
A
1
Fig. 7. Weave in the Ends as at B and D.
33
3
PRAIRIE FARMER'S RELIABLE DIRECTORY
laid in, and in pulling each just tight enough so that it will carry its one- third of the load. A properly made long splice is hard to detect except where the ends protrude. It does not increase the diameter of the rope, and is the only splice which should be used where the rope runs over pulleys. The lengths of long splices for ordinary farm ropes of different sizes should be as follows:
1/2 inch rope-4 feet % inch rope-5 feet 1 inch rope-6 feet
This means that each end to be spliced will be unlaid back only one- half these distances. The same dis- tances can be safely used for repair- ing broken strands where new strands are laid in.
If you wish to "take the twist out" of a new rope before puting it into the hay rigging, tie one end of the
rope to a light wagon and drag the rope about a meadow for twenty min- utes or so, drawing it sharply around a tree or post if possible. This treat- ment will lessen objectionable twist- ing and snarling, so troublesome with new ropes. Do not drag the rope out on a dirt road, as is often done. It is hardly necessary to caution the wise driver to turn his fork team al- ternately to the right and to the left to avoid twisting the hay rope.
H. G. Brunning of Mason county, Il1., who has had considerable experi- ence with alfalfa on sandy lands, says that when he seeds alfalfa again he will not use a nurse crop, as on light, sandy soils the young alfalfa plants need all the plant food they can get and should not be robbed by the nurse crop.
B
1
Fig. 8. The Repair Completed
5
6
3
A
00
2
Fig. 9. Starting the Long Splice
6
4
B
A
3
Fig. 10. Ready to Tie the Knots in the Long Splice. Ends 1, 2 and 3 Are from Rope A. Ends 4, 5 and 6 Are from Rope B
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MARSHALL, PUTNAM, STARK COUNTIES
CARE OF HORSES From Prairie Farmer.
Here are a few rules prepared by the Boston Work Horse Relief Asso- ciation that may as well be observed on the farm as in the city:
Load lightly, and drive slowly.
Stop in the shade if possible.
Water your horse as often as pos- sible. So long as a horse is working, water in small quantities will not hurt him. But let him drink only a few swallows if he is going to stand still. Do not fail to water him at night after he has eaten his hay.
When he comes in after work, sponge off the harness marks and sweat, his eyes, his nose, and mouth, and the dock. Wash his feet, but not his legs.
If the thermometer is 75 degrees or higher, wipe him all over with a damp sponge. Use vinegar water if possible. Do not turn the hose on him.
Saturday night, give a bran mash, lukewarm; and add a tablespoonful of saltpeter.
. If the horse is overcome by heat, get him into the shade, remove har- ness and bridle, wash out his mouth, sponge him all over, shower his legs, and give him two ounces of aromatic spirits of ammonia, or two ounces of sweet spirits of nitre, in a pint of water; or give him a pint of coffee, warm. Cool his head at once, using cold water, or, if necessary, chopped ice, wrapped in a cloth.
If the horse is off his feed, try him with two quarts of oats mixed with bran and a little water, and add a little salt or sugar. Or give him oatmeal gruel or barley water to drink.
Watch your horse. If he stops sweating suddenly, or if he breathes short and quick, or if his ears droop, or if he stands with his legs braced sideways, he is in danger of a heat or sun stroke and needs attention at once.
If it is so hot that the horse sweats in the stable at night, tie him outside, with bedding under him. Unless he cools off during the night, he cannot well stand the next day's heat.
1436141
SOLDERING
By P. O. Barnfield, in Prairie Farmer.
Soldering is so simple and is use- ful in so many different ways that one naturally supposes every farmer would have a soldering outfit if he thought he could use it to advantage. On this supposition I beg to offer some suggestions which have come from actual experience.
No special ability or experience is required. It is, of course, true that deftness and accurancy naturally fol- low experience, but good results will as surely follow if one will keep the following points in mind.
The soldering outfit consists of a soldering copper (good size, not un- der two pounds), a bar of half and half solder, a piece of salammoniac, and a small bottle of muriatic acid with a small brush for applying.
Heat the soldering copper not red hot but about the same as a flat iron would be heated for ironing clothes, wipe off the dust on a rag, take a file and rub the surface at the point till copper is clean and bright, then press the hot copper down the sal- ammoniac till it makes a depression. Place the end of the bar of solder in this depression and with the cop- per melt off two or three drops of solder. Remove the bar and rub the copper hard into the depression, but not so as to push the solder out over the edge. Keep this up till the cop- per is well coated with a smooth bright coat resembling tin. You are now ready for business. Remove every particle of dirt from the parts intended to be soldered. Usually it is necessary to scrape the surface with a knife or file if greasy or very dirty, and then with a small brush apply the muriatic acid. Rub the surface with the brush to remove particles. Now rub surface to be soldered with the hot copper, using solder as de- sired. If the solder stands in globules and does not spread over the surface it is because there is some foreign matter between the solder and the sur- face and the cleaning process should be repeated with more care.
Solder will stick to almost any kind of metal if there is no foreign matter on the surface. Since the parts of a
35
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PRAIRIE FARMER'S RELIABLE DIRECTORY
copper under the tinned surface are easily melted, it should never be heated to a red heat.
In mending granitewear or copper, a copper harness rivet or a tinner's rivet may be inserted after cleaning the surface around the hole. Get the
boys started to making measures and buckets, funnels and flue caps. Ask that these be made a specific size and see how quickly they will grapple with problems in mensuration. It also might keep them out of town some evenings.
HOW TO JUDGE TRACTOR HORSEPOWER
From Prairie Farmer.
Nearly everyone knows the defini- tion of a "horsepower" as given in school arithmetics, etc., namely, "the power required to raise a weight of 33.000 pounds to a height of 1 foot în one minute." As this is a definite, fixed unit of power, one would natur- ally suppose that the horsepower rat- ings of two tractors would be a logical and reliable means of compar- ing their ability to perform work; that a tractor rated at 30 horsepower on the drawbar would be twice as powerful and capable of doing twice as much work as one rated at 15 horsepower on the drawbar, for ex- ample. This supposition would be correct but for the fact that there has been no definite standard used in ascertaining the horsepower devel- oped by tractors and the percentage of the power actually developed which should be taken for their catalogue rating. The various manu- facturers have followed their own judgment in the matter, and as a re- sult several methods of rating are being used, with a consequent lack of uniformity.
It is because of this fact that at the present time it is quite common to find two tractors doing practically the same amount of work and clearly of about equal power although with widely different catalog ratings. It is obvious that either the outfit with a low catalog rating has been under- rated by its manufacturer or that the second machine has been overrated, or perhaps both have occurred. It would seem advisable, therefore, that steps be taken to bring about a stand- ard rule for ascertaining and desig- nating the horsepower of tractors. It is not so important, perhaps, what particular method is followed so long as the same method is used by all manufacturers. thus avoiding having machines of the same power given such varying ratings.
A movement is already on foot in the department to . bring about the adoption of some standard. Until one has been decided upon and adopted, it is suggested that farmers, in com- paring different makes of tractors, should give particular attention to the number of plows pulled and the amount of work done by the various machines, and that less attention be paid to the catalog ratings.
When outfits can be seen working side by side, as at the tractor demon- strations which are being held throughout the country, the amount of work done is of more value in comparing the relative power than are the manufacturers' ratings, unless ex- actly the same method has been used in each case.
It is obvious that two tractors- each pulling the same number of plows of equal size, at equal depth, in the same soil, and each moving at the same speed-are exerting practi- cally equal amounts of power on the drawbar. In such case, if each is pull- ing its normal load, they should have the same drawbar rating. It is not at all uncommon, however, as previ- ously stated, to find tractors under such conditions with widely different ratings. By using as a standard the amount of work done by different tractors therefore a very fair. com- parison of the drawbar horsepower can be obtained. With this known, a good idea of the power of the motor can be gained. If in the case just mentioned, one of the machines was considerably heavier than the other, it is apparent that it would require more power to move its own weight and that it would therefore not be capable of exerting on the drawbar as large a percentage of the motor's total power as would the other ma- chine, assuming that the loss of power through gears, etc., in the transmission was the same. It natur- ally follows that the motor on the
36
The Allen Angle Link Tractor
with the Angle Traction Plates removed as when the tractor is used on the roads or streets, or when in meadow fields. The Angle Traction Plates can be put on the links in a few minutes. The Tractor will pull four 14-inch plows, even in a soft ground. Will turn square corners and can be run with gasoline or kerosene. Write for particulars. The Allen Tractor Co., 547-549 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, III.
Waukesha Lime and Stone Co.
PRODUCERS OF
Quality Agricultural Limestone
THREE GRADES:
Flour-No. I Kiln Dried-No. 2 Common
Samples and Booklet Furnished on Request.
Address Inquiries to WAUKESHA, WIS.
Branches:
Milwaukee, Chicago
37
PRAIRIE FARMER'S RELIABLE DIRECTORY
heaviest machine would develop more power on the belt than would the one on the lighter outfit.
The terms "brake" or "belt" horse- power mean exactly the same thing and are used to denote the amount of power which the engine will develop and transmit to a belt for stationary work, such as threshing. This amount of power may be computed by differ- ent formulas or may be ascertained definitely by actual measurement with a proper apparatus. This accounts for some of the lack of uniformity in rat- ings. Some companies carefully measure the amount of power devel- oped by each engine before it leaves the factory and then give their engine a catalogue rating equivalent to its maximum power output; others will deduct a certain amount from the maximum horsepower as ascertained and rate their engine at various per- centages of this figure in order to be on the safe side, and to underrate their outfit rather than overrate it, while some companies do not measure the amount of power the engine actu- ally develops, but compute it. With the diameter of cylinder, the length of stroke, and the number of revolu- tions per minute known, the horse- power which will be developed by an engine can be computed with a fair degree of accuracy, although there are a number of formulas used, several of which give somewhat different results. .
In comparing the power of two tractors the speed at which they are moving must always be considered. A tractor pulling two plows at 2 miles an hour will do the same amount of work as one pulling one plow and traveling at 4 miles an hour, other conditions being equal, and the horse- power developed at the drawbar is the same, because the element of time enters into the determination of horsepower. The slower any given tractor is geared to move the greater will be the load which it can pull at the drawbar, as it pulls it less rapidly. The amount of work done and the total amount of power exerted will remain practically the same.
It is obvious that in the case men- tioned the tractor pulling one plow and running twice as fast as the one pulling two plows must move its own weight over the ground twice as many times as will the other tractor. If the
weight of the two tractors is the same, it will be seen that twice as much power has been expended in moving the weight of the high-speed tractor as has been used by the one with low speed.
A great many farmers find it diffi- cult to understand why a tractor of, say, 10 horsepower at the drawbar will not pull as heavy a load as will 10 horses. This is not because a me- chanical horsepower is less than the amount of power developed by a horse, but is because of the fact that a horse has an enormous overload capacity-that is, he is capable of ex- erting for a short time a great deal stronger pull than he should normally maintain hour after hour.
A tractor, however, has very little overload capacity when pulling its normal load. Thus, if a tractor with a drawbar rating of 10 horsepower . pulling its normal load of plows under average conditions should strike a particularly hard spot where the draft was doubled for a few minutes it would stall; while 10 horses under similar conditions could readily in- crease their pull sufficiently to meet the increased draft.
From this it will be seen that in cases where the draft will vary (and this occurs in practically all kinds of farm work because of grades, soil variation, etc.) the load which a tractor will handle satisfactorily is that which it can pull up the steepest grade or through the toughest soil in the field. This load may be only half of what it can pull under more favor- able conditions in the same field. It will also be apparent that the working load of a tractor under ordinary farm conditions is considerably less than the normal load for its drawbar equiv- alent in horses, that is, a tractor of 10 horsepower on the drawbar will not pull, except under constantly favor- able conditions, the load which a 10- horse team would normally pull. The difference might be said to be entirely in the overload capacity of these two- prime movers. With a tractor its maximum power is practically its normal power because it is capable of pulling this load continuously, but cannot carry. anything in excess of this. On the other hand, the horse's normal load is much less than what he can do in an emergency.
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MARSHALL, PUTNAM, STARK COUNTIES
KILLING STUMPS.
By Carl Livingston, University of Wisconsin, in Prairie Farmer.
.Covering soft maple and elm stumps with salt would surely kill the stumps, but there is no question but that this process would be very much more ex- pensive than it would to blow them out with dynamite or to pull them with a stump puller.
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